professor's influence. A furious attack on the latter was answered
by recrimination; and the whole battery of theological authorities
was reciprocally discharged by one or other of the disputants.
The states-general interfered between them: they were summoned to
appear before the council of state; and grave politicians listened
for hours to the dispute. Arminius obtained the advantage, by the
apparent reasonableness of his creed, and the gentleness and
moderation of his conduct. He was meek, while Gomar was furious;
and many of the listeners declared that they would rather die
with the charity of the former than in the faith of the latter.
A second hearing was allowed them before the states of Holland.
Again Arminius took the lead; and the controversy went on
unceasingly, till this amiable man, worn out by his exertions
and the presentiment of the evil which these disputes were
engendering for his country, expired in his forty-ninth year,
piously persisting in his opinions.

The Gomarists now loudly called for a national synod, to regulate
the points of faith. The Arminians remonstrated on various grounds,
and thus acquired the name of Remonstrants, by which they were
soon generally distinguished. The most deplorable contests ensued.
Serious riots occurred in several of the towns of Holland; and
James I. of England could not resist the temptation of entering
the polemical lists, as a champion of orthodoxy and a decided
Gomarist. His hostility was chiefly directed against Vorstius,
the successor and disciple of Arminius. He pretty strongly
recommended to the states-general to have him burned for heresy.
His inveterate intolerance knew no bounds; and it completed the
melancholy picture of absurdity which the whole affair presents
to reasonable minds.

In this dispute, which occupied and agitated all, it was impossible
that Barneveldt should not choose the congenial temperance and
toleration of Arminius. Maurice, with probably no distinct conviction
or much interest in the abstract differences on either side, joined
the Gomarists. His motives were purely temporal; for the party
he espoused was now decidedly as much political as religious.
King James rewarded him by conferring on him the ribbon of the
Order of the Garter, vacant by the death of Henry IV. of France.
The ceremony of investment was performed with great pomp by the
English ambassador at The Hague; and James and Maurice entered
from that time into a closer a